The Roll of Honour

Introduction to Roll

At the unveiling on Christmas Eve 1922, a silver plated casket containing a Roll of Honour was inserted into the Govan War Memorial by a Mrs. Ryan who had lost 4 of her household in the war, the 1122 men named on the Roll of Honour all came from the areas of Govan, Ibrox, Cessnock, Plantation, Drumoyne and Linthouse.

In 2019 an opportunity was taken to retrieve the Roll of Honour during refurbishment of the War Memorial by Govan Cross Townscape Heritage Initiative (GCTHI), the plan was to copy the names then conserve and re-insert the Roll of Honour back into memorial, however the Roll was completely destroyed due to water damage and not one name could be recovered.

In 1922 each member of the War Memorial Committee had been given a copy of the Roll, the Govan Reminiscence Group (GRG) then set about trying to track down descendants of the Committee in the slim hope that a copy still existed within one of the families, after some research we made contact with Sheila Lawson who found a copy in a barn loft of a croft on the Isle of Skye, this Roll belonged to William Munro, one of the War Memorial Committee Members, remarkably Sheila was not related to William Munro. Thankfully GRG and GCTHI were able to re-insert a copy of Roll back into War Memorial before the end of its refurbishment.

The Roll of Honour runs to 18 foolscap pages and contains 1122 names, though it is clear that the identification of Govan service personnel eligible for inclusion was an ongoing process, right up to the publication of the list. The last two pages are supplements, containing 43 names, added to the 1079 names on the original sixteen-page document. The Govan Reminiscence Group has now established not only that a number of the names on the Roll are duplicated but also that the names of a great many more men (and women) of Govan who died in the Great War are omitted from the Roll of Honour, so that the real total could be over 2000 names. There are also many variations and errors in the spelling of surnames.

The GRG have identified more than 650 of the men on Roll and can provide more information on many of the men, such as; regimental number, marital status and address etc. Identifying the men is an ongoing project by GRG with the aim of developing the names on Roll and research into an online database.

The Govan Reminiscence Group would appreciate if you could contact us if you have identified any of the men and/or have more information on any of them. We would also be grateful if you can send us any photos of the men on Roll. GRG also welcome queries regarding any of the men on the Roll.

This Roll of Honour was digitised by the Govan Reminiscence Group on 11th November 2022.